Hello, my friends, we are in Seattle, at the International.
Here with me is Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, this is the first interview for Na'Vi at the International.
Danya is the first, Danya did you give 7 interviews earlier today?
7 interviews... What questions did they ask?
Different interesting questions... Try to ask me something and I would tell you if they already asked me today.
Okay, I've heard them anyway, about Liquid, about your standings after groups...
Go ahead and ask, don't play so smart, ask.
I want to be somewhat original and avoid those questions.
Nice try!
Try to help me a bit and tell what else they asked.
No, you go ahead and ask and I will tell if they already asked that.
Okay, how is the environment in the team?
There was this question, high five!
The question about the environment was asked...
Should I answer?
No, you don't have to, let me answer, I'll try to guess your answer.
Well, the environment is nice, we practiced a lot, but it didn't go quite well during the groupstage.
But anyway it's fine, we'll try to do our best.
Am I correct?
Give me five! It was close, not bad.
What do you think about Team Liquid game in playoffs?
You answer: Team Liquid is a very strong team, we played against them
and we will prepare for them, it's bo1 and we have to do our best.
What else did they ask you?
Go ahead and ask.
Okay, now to the serious part.
Serious one... let's go.
The question is: some analysts and community members write that you should've missed Summit and Starladder not to show your strats there.
What do you think about it? Can you argue that?
It's an unusual question, they didn't ask it. It's a CIS question.
Well, I did my best. I think it's a popular question...
Well, yea, I remember it now, in one of the first interviews.
Okay, this topic is very popular, they often talk about it in social media, so I'd like to know your opinion.
Right now after the groupstage, do you think it was worth it?
Of course! We used those tournaments to prepare for the International.
We gained some confidence, improved our gameplay, tried to cooperate.
We didn't show any extraordinary strategies, so...
Maybe there is one thing...
The teams prepared for us more thoroughly, but I think they would prepare anyway, so it's not a big deal.
I assume you discovered SK during the Summit, before that it wasn't a solid pick,
maybe you played him once, but you discovered him as a solid hardlaner during Starladder or Summit,
you did quite well and now he is banned permanently against you, is that right?
Yes, that's correct, it's good for us because it opens some new picks for us in return.
So we started to use them in the second half of the second day.
Before that we didn't use them for some reason, but now everything is fine.
Danya, why were the results in the groupstage so unstable?
You beat 2-0 the Chinese, and played 1-1 with Escape, and they are the team from Wild Card, why?
Why? You know, it's unclear. Either we were nervous, or there were some problems with draft...
We threw one map against TNC, we also underestimated some of the opponents probably.
I don't know, it's hard to say, but we have what we deserve.
Okay, it's just frustrating, I think if you'd ban Lone Druid against Escape,
the game would be different, because he probably won the game single-handedly.
Yes, probably you are right.
Danya, yesterday the game against OG Morphling surprised me...
Miracle alone split you across the map and won the game.
How did that happen, can you tell us about the games? The games against OG I mean.
Why is this happening?
You're talking about Morphling?
Yes, about Morphling.
We had a game plan, we picked really good heroes,
it could've worked out if we managed to dominate the hard lane.
There was a plan to send Beastmaster and Omniknight to their safe lane,
we knew they had last pick and most likely it should be Morphling.
We were choosing between Morphling and Anti-Mage, decided to not ban Morph,
but as a result we failed in hard lane, Morph got first blood and 3 more kills,
and he got even more items than he could get on free farm.
We were supposed to dominate and put pressure on that lane, but ended up giving away too much.
That wasn't the end of the game though, but made our strategy a bit wonky.
And after that it was quite difficult to continue playing this game,
because they had a split push strat, while we had basically nothing to defend with against split push.
Only Slark can deal with Morph, and it's also risky.
The more game progresses into late, the riskier it gets.
Because Slark can get caught and the more farmed the Morph is, the faster he will be able to kill Slark,
if Earth Spirit or Batrider catch him.
So it was really hard to play.
I was Razor and I couldn't do much against this Morph,
he didn't give a damn about me at all, we had a huge difference in net worth,
because Morph is able to farm very quickly, while Razor farms or doesn't farm at all.
Razor is more a team hero, he's supposed to go with the team and needs to be around all the time.
And then Morph just slowly pushed our base.
If we had a better start, the game could've been in our hands.
Maybe we should've picked someone else instead of Omniknight since we couldn't dominate their safe lane this way.
Because the rest of our heroes were good against their line up,
they had only magic damage, we bought Hoods and they couldn't do much.
The only way they could win is to split push and they did it.
They capitalized on our mistakes,
but it was really hard to play against them.
Got it.
I've also heard from the analysts that your strategy is usually based on picking a jungler for Vanya.
If he gets to play a jungler, the game goes well for you,
but if he doesn't, the game doesn't go well.
Is it so or not?
If yes, why don't you pick a jungler in the first phase of the draft?
Because OG for example banned junglers twice in the second phase.
Absolutely not.
First of all, Vanya can play very well with every hero.
Second, why does it look like our strategy is based on picking a jungler?
It's becasue when Vanya plays Chen or Ench we tend to play very aggressively, putting pressure on all lanes.
But there are other heroes you can be aggressive with, and try to put pressure on all lanes,
take the risk and put an offensive duo or trilane in offlane.
It might work out for you.
That's why it looks like we play this way only when we pick a jungler,
but we can pick active heroes without a jungler and pressure the lanes.
Just need to make the right conclusions and so on.
Do you like this tournament's meta?
First pick Drow, PotM, Ogre is also making his way into the picks.
Do you like playing this meta?
I don't really see any particular changes.
At every TI people try to abuse everything they can,
pick all possible hero combos that are easier to win with,
the strongest ones and that are easy to execute, these kind of combos.
This year it's a Drow strategy and a Huskar strategy,
which are really easy to execute if you get an early advantage,
and it's quite easy to win games with these heroes.
Also an Alchemist one and these kind of strategies.
Some teams don't use these heroes and win,
some teams try to counter them,
and some tems have already figured out how to play against them.
So this is the meta now, but I can't really say that I like it.
I'd like the game to be more skill dependent,
because playing a Drow or a Huskar doesn't require much of a skill.
Okay, your next opponent is Liquid and the next one is either EG or Newbee.
What do you think about Liquid? They are not performing well at TI.
What's your plan for the game?
What's our plan? Our plan is to win.
That's a good answer.
Okay, thank you for your time, Danya.
I wish you the best of luck in the main event.
Guys, thank you for watching us, see you soon on Natus Vincere channel.
Thank! I'm really looking forward to our next interview!